A demodulator with a carrier generating pinned photodiode

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a demodulator including a pinned photodiode, at least one storage node, at least one transfer gate connected between the storage node and the pinned photodiode. The pinned photodiode includes a p-doped epitaxial semiconductor layer, a n-doped semiconductor region formed within the epitaxial semiconductor layer and creating therewith a lower junction and at least one lateral junction substantially perpendicular to the lower junction, a p+ pinning layer formed on top of said semiconductor region. The demodulator further includes a generating unit configured to generateminority and majority carriers at said lateral junction and to form a lateral photodiode.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates to a demodulator for receiving an optical signal as a modulated signal and an electrical signal as a demodulated signal. One of the applications of interest is time-of-flight measurements. Background technique [0002] Computer vision is an emerging field of research that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding images. The main driving idea in this field is the ability to replicate human vision by electronically perceiving and understanding images of a scene. Note that one topic of computer vision research is depth perception or, in other words, three-dimensional (3-D) vision. [0003] Time-of-flight (TOF) camera systems have emerged recently and are capable of capturing a 3-D image of a scene by timing the interval between the emission and the echo of a measured signal. This method is based on the principle that for a signal with a known velocity of propagation in a given medium, the d...

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Problems solved by technology

Therefore, there is a tradeoff between demodulation speed and fill factor

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